Duck Lovers Quackers Over Show

He thinks the Rappahannock River Waterfowl Show, which opened Saturday and continues today until 6 p.m., is just ducky.

"This is the best show and the most congenial show," said Coppage, who runs a commercial art studio. "I wouldn't say it's the biggest, but they treat you like they want you."

Everywhere you look in the White Stone Firehouse and the old school building next door, you see renderings of ducks and birds of all stripes and feathers.

Carvings of ducks, whether life-like decorative ones or hunting decoys, predominate. But there are also paintings and prints, photographs, little magnets for your refrigerator, and pillows, aprons and doilies, all covered with duck designs.

In one room, a how-to video is running, showing a man working on a decoy. And there's also a table set up that offers a complete line of power and hand tools for the decoy and wood carver.

The show, organized by William and Patricia Bruce, is held each year to benefit the White Stone Volunteer Fire Department. Hundreds of people were milling around looking and buying Saturday.

One of the 72 exhibitors in this year's 10th anniversary show is so taken with decoys that he specializes in painting them.

"I like to hunt and I like decoys," said Paul E. Fisher of Suffolk, who was sitting in front of a series of paintings of brightly colored decoys. "I like the art and shape of them. It just started as a whim. There's no real logic to it."

Stewart "Buck" Rodgers, who works for the Newport News Parks and Recreation Department, had several life-like carved ducks on display, including a hooded merganser drake that he said took him 100 hours to make.

He said he carves after work and on weekends for relaxation.

"The meat of the show," in the eyes of true duck devotees like Coppage, is the contest in which a panel of judges selects the best carvings in different categories. Decorative ducks were being judged on Saturday and the hunting decoys will compete today beginning at 11.

"Even though I'm not in it, it excites me just to watch it," said Coppage, who had brought along a goldeneye duck carved by a friend to enter in the competition.

As the three judges stood in front of a water tank and scrutinized the gently bobbing entrants, the finalists for best puddle duck, Coppage explained the basis for the rankings.

"They're looking at the way it floats, they're looking for the realistic look, that the attitude of the bird is right, the paint, the carving," he said.

"You see the one there's got its head hunkered down between its wings, that's what they mean by attitude.

"In my opinion, the black duck is the best in the tank," Coppage opined. "Right here in the corner, with his head coming out at us. But that doesn't mean I'm right."

Despite his disclaimer, the black duck with its neck extended won the puddle duck round and then went on to win "best in show" against the winner of diving ducks and the goose and confidence category.

As it turned out, the three top prizes in the show were swept by one man, Theodore J. Kaiser, a retired engineer from Hartfield in Middlesex County.

Kaiser was a self-effacing victor, saying, "It was luck."

Although Coppage's friend was shut out of the best in show contest, she took third place in the diving duck category. "That's OK," he said. "Third's third, not too shabby."